118 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Dec. 



located in the grove and there the sap is gathered and boiled. 

 The sap is obtained by cutting a chip out of the base of the tree, 

 inserting a thin chip in a nick cut in the bark just below the 

 larger incision, and placing below the point of the chip a crude 

 bucket formed by folding upwards the ends of a piece of birch 

 bark. The ends of the birch bark are kept in the folded position 

 by means of thongs of spruce root. This crude but serviceable 

 bucket catches the sap as it flows out of the hacked wound 

 and drips off of the end of the slanting chip, and the sap thus 

 caught is easily carried to the teepee. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates. By J. S. Kings- 

 ley; 401 pages, 346 illustrations. Price $2.50 net. P. Blakis- 

 ton's Son & Co., Philadelphia. 



We have here a really good elementary text on Comparative 

 Anatomy of Vertebrates. The subject matter of the intro- 

 duction is well chosen, and includes just the proper ground- 

 work for the later study. The first 120 pages are devoted 

 to the Integument and the Skeleton. The discussion is clear 

 and comprehensive, and particularly well illustrated. There 

 is a short but excellent discussion of the Coelom, pages 

 121 to 124. I was somewhat disappointed in the section on 

 the Muscular System, pages 125 to 136. As a short discussion, 

 this section is excellent, but a more complete account would 

 seem to me justified in a text of this kind. The Nervous System 

 and the Organs of Special Sense, are dealt with on pages 137 to 

 205, and receive excellent treatment. Several of the new 

 diagrams here presented will prove very acceptable to both 

 teacher and student. I should have preferred a discussion 

 of the human brain at the close of the section on that organ. 

 The Digestive, Respiratory, Circulatory, and Urogenital Systems 

 occupy the remaining half of the book, and receive capital 

 discussion. The many new diagrams, some of which are particu- 

 larly useful, add appreciably to the value of the text. There 

 is a well chosen Bibliography at the close, and a valuable series 

 of Definitions of Systematic Names. The book is altogether 

 an excellent one. The author has compressed an immense 

 amount of information into its 400 pages, and has presented it 

 in a very clear manner and with logical sequence. It will rill a 

 decided need in the teaching of comparative anatomy. The 

 publishers are also to be complimented on the excellent appear- 

 ance of the work. It is of the ideal size, shape and strength for 

 a student text. J. M. S. 



